Mark WiedmerThe warm and fuzzy Yales, Middle Tennessee States, Stephen F. Austins and our own University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Mocs have all been dismissed by the future NBA hopefuls at Duke, Indiana, Notre Dame and Syracuse, to name but a quarter of the remaining field.
For all the false hope those 10 opening-round victories by double-digit seeds - an NCAA tourney record - gave us that this might be the year a true bracket-buster wins it all, these 16 teams have "blueblood" written all over them.
For proof, the royal quartet of Duke, Indiana, Kansas and North Carolina own 18 NCAA titles between them. Throw in Wisconsin (which won it all in 1941 and has reached the past two Final Fours), Oregon (which won the first NCAA tourney in 1939) and Syracuse (which not only won it all in 2003 with perhaps the first notable one-and-doner in Carmelo Anthony but has also reached four other Final Fours), and you have a pretty fair field still in play.
What you don't have, sadly, is the slightest degree of class and sportsmanship from Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James regarding the team that came sooooo close to reaching the Sweet 16 - the Northern Iowa Panthers.
By now, every basketball fan on the planet probably knows of the 11th-seeded Panthers' collapse against Texas A&M late Sunday evening with a Sweet 16 spot on the line. Up 12 points on the Aggies with less than 35 seconds to go in regulation, Northern Iowa somehow lost that lead, then ultimately lost the game in double overtime. It was the worst collapse in NCAA basketball history as far as anyone can tell.
But it happens. These are kids, and in the case of the Panthers, a lot of kids who are likely to earn a living in something other than basketball unless they become coaches. Most of them will almost assuredly never be teammates or foes of James in the NBA.
Yet that didn't stop James the Jerk from making the following comment: "I did see a clip of the last 20 seconds of that game, and I would quit basketball. If I was on Northern Iowa, I would quit. You're up eight with 20-plus seconds, you up five with 10 seconds - I would quit. Yeah, I would quit."
The Panthers never quit, of course. They regrouped well enough to force a second overtime. They stayed within four points of the Aggies in the second extra period despite failing to hit a single field goal. They just came up a few seconds short against a team that's blessed with probably at least three - if not four or five players - who will one day face James at the next level.
Then again, this isn't the first time the words "quit" and "James" have wound up in the same sentence.
After James left Cleveland for Miami in summer 2010 following what appeared to be a very halfhearted effort by the Akron, Ohio, native in a playoff loss to Boston, Cavs owner Dan Gilbert wrote in an open letter to Cleveland fans: "He quit. Not just in Game 5, but in Games 2, 4 and 6. Watch the tape. The Boston series was unlike anything in the history of sports for a superstar."
To be fair, Gilbert was beyond angry that James would leave the Cavs for Miami, where King James would eventually lead the Heat to two NBA titles. Swallowing his pride, Gilbert welcomed James back prior to last season.
But while no one in the Buckeye State wants to see James leave again, regardless of his comments, you get the feeling that the rest of the country is starting to view the most athletically gifted player to ever wear an NBA uniform as a villain on the order of Hannibal Lecter and Harry Potter's Lord Voldemort.
Of course, James never went to college. He was one of the last prep wunderkinds afforded that option. Maybe if he had, he would have learned that silence is sometimes golden.
So which teams will fall silent in the Sweet 16? Which will reach the Final Four?
The experts are leaning toward No. 1 seeds Kansas (South), North Carolina (East) and Virginia (Midwest), along with second-seeded Oklahoma (West).
UTC coach Matt McCall, whose Mocs lost to Big Ten regular-season champ Indiana in the East Regional's opening round, believes it will be, "Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma and Virginia. Everybody said Michigan State was going to be a Final Four team, and Indiana was two games in front of them in the Big Ten. There's no way they were a 5 seed. I think they should have been a 3, maybe even a 2. They've got size, they can hit 3s, they have a tremendous point guard in Yogi Ferrell and they'll guard you. I think they can beat North Carolina."
If so, North Carolina coach Roy Williams might argue against the seeding as vociferously as Kentucky coach John Calipari did, because a No. 3 seed for the Hoosiers would have meant the Tar Heels would have had no way to play Indiana until a regional final instead of Friday night in a regional semifinal.
An ESPN poll on the best uniforms remaining in the tourney already put the Tar Heels on top, with the Hoosiers in third place and Kansas sandwiched between the two. If you're scoring at home, that's a championship for the Swoosh, but second and third for Adidas (Kansas and Indiana). Thankfully, the threads at Nike U (Oregon) ranked 13th.
But on the court, let's go with Kansas, North Carolina, Texas A&M and Virginia to reach the Final Four.
Then let's hope whoever the losers are - or however shocking their defeats - they don't consider James the Jerk's option to quit the game so many of us love, especially in March.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.